Superheterodyne receiver (superhet) has been used in radio communication. A superheterodyne receiver has a local oscillator (LO) that is mixed with the incoming received signal to generate a lower frequency signal commonly referred to as the intermediate frequency (IF). The superhet can have the LO lower in frequency than the received signal. In this case, the received signal represents an Upper Sideband (USB) response. Similarly, the local oscillator can be higher in frequency than the received signal. In this case the received signal is referenced as the Lower Sideband (LSB) response. A receiver without image rejection is referenced as a Double Sideband (DSB) receiver, which has the LSB and USB signals both translated to the IF frequency.
One or more hearing instruments may be worn on a person's head to deliver sounds to the person's ears. Radio technology may be applied for a hearing instrument to communicate with another device such as another hearing instrument or a host device. An example of hearing instruments includes a hearing aid used to assist a patient suffering hearing loss by transmitting amplified sounds to an ear canal. The hearing aid is worn in and/or around one of the patient's ears, and may be powered by a battery. In many cases, the patient prefers the hearing aid to be small and minimally visible. This limits the battery size and hence the energy available for the operation of the hearing aid. Thus, there is a need for minimizing power consumption of the hearing aid while ensuring satisfactory performance of its various operations.